GENDER AND SOCIETY

The whys of women, their Oppressions, and path to

Liberation
CHAPTER 7
Laws, Policies, and Programs for
Philippine Women
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. name Philippine laws that protect and empower women;
2. explain the importance of policies that protect and empower women; and
3. state the aims of these policies for women and for the society as a whole.

Pre-work for the Chapter

Look for news articles or current events that show how women are regarded or
treated by powerful people in the country. Discuss it through writing for what
you notice. Do you think these actions empower women?

Human Rights Approach

The way the world is structured places certain groups at a disadvantage. These
groups have particular rights that are specific to their needs, which include sexual
and reproductive health care, protection against gender-based violence, and the
right to non- discrimination in education and the workplace. The respect for and
promotion of these rights are necessary because they help expand women's
access to resources and their roles in communities, for instance. Thus, the human
rights approach to women's development is essential since it can serve as a
means to increasing awareness about women: their plight and particular needs. If
these human rights-based development initiatives are ratified and accepted by
states, they can be an effective instrument for enforcing the promotion and
protection of women's rights. It is the reason why most women advance gender
equality using the rights-based approach. When organizations expose violations
of rights and ask their governments to rectify the situation, they often refer to
internationally recognized and guaranteed rights. Laws have been passed
responding to these demands for the protections of women's rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1979, the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) of 1994, the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) of 2000, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015 are
among the many documents advocating gender equality and human
development. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is "a common standard
of achievements for all peoples and all nations."136 Its underlying premise is to
provide all people the same basic human rights, regardless of sex or gender.
These rights are fundamental human entitlements of a person, first, because his
or her existence as a person has intrinsic value, and second, because certain
entitlements are necessary for one to realize his or her humanity. Without these
rights entitlements on individuals, human growth is almost impossible. Therefore,
in the rights-based approach, human rights must be protected and promoted. All
humans have the right to life, the right to a nationality, the right to education, the
right to a livelihood, etc. These rights ratified by an overwhelming majority of the
members of the United Nations are fundamental to the realization of a genuine
human existence. They are universal and necessary to all human beings. However,
women have particular rights due to their particularities or specificities.

International Treaties for Women's Protection

International instruments provide a context for gender mainstreaming initiatives

in the Philippines and serve as a basis for the assessment of these initiatives.
Because the Philippines is a signatory to these instruments, it must create
programs or laws to operationalize them. The Beijing Platform for Action, the
MDGs, and the CEDAW all advocate gender equality in the national and
international spheres. These instruments were identified by the Philippine
Commission on Women (PCW), the government agency that promotes gender
equality and women's empowerment.

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against

Women
The CEDAW^ (also known as the International Bill of Rights of Women) is "the
only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women and
targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family
relations."

Beijing Platform for Action

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) "emphasizes that women share common
concerns that can be addressed only by working together and in partnership with
men towards the common goal of [gender] equality around the world." It was a
result of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women
held in 1985. The BPFA aims for the complete participation of women in all
spheres of life through the shared responsibility of men and women at home, in
the workplace, and in the public sector. It seeks a people-centered sustainable
development.

The BPfA is a landmark act that recognizes the subordinate position of women in
the globe, and aims to promote and protect their full rights while diagnosing
problems related to women's issues. It proposes strategic objectives and concrete
actions that can be taken by various concerned agents to address these issues.
The aim of this platform for action was the enactment of policies and programs
addressing women concerns within five years of its creation in 1995. The UN
mandated its Commission on the Status of Women to monitor the integration of
gender perspectives on critical issues highlighted in the BPfA.

The BPfA has special considerations for the girl-child, indigenous women, women
workers, and women who were victims of violence in armed conflicts. It also
focuses on the social dimension of growth, recognizing that structural adjustment
plans had left behind women and had led to a feminization of poverty-the
phenomenon in which majority of the world's poor are women.

To ensure gender equality, the BPFA formulated the 12 critical areas of concern
that need urgent action:

1. the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women;

2. inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to education and training;
3. inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to health care and related
services;
4. violence against women;
5. the effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those living
under foreign occupation;
6. inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of productive
activities and in access to resources;
7. inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-
making at all levels;8. insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the
advancement of women;
9. lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human
rights of women;
10. stereotyping of women and inequality in women's access to and participation
in all communication systems, especially in the media;
11. gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the
safeguarding of the environment; and
12. persistent discrimination against and violation of the rights of the girl-child.

Gender mainstreaming as a strategy for gender equality was established as an

outcome of this Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women. It was then
seen as the "most important mechanism to fulfill the commitment made to the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) in 1995."147 Signatories of the BPfA must
adopt national policies and programs that incorporate gender mainstreaming, 148
defined as:

Millennium Development Goals

The MDGs are a collection of eight goals that focus on major issues of the
underprivileged people around the globe. They were drafted by the UN in 2000 as
a way to combat the most pressing issues of developing countries. The goals focus
on reducing poverty, hunger, disease, and gender inequality, as well as ensuring
access to water and sanitation by 2015. The MDGs promote international
commitment to meeting women's needs and women's empowerment. Three of
the eight MDGs focus on education and/or gender: Goal 2, "to achieve universal
primary education"; Goal 3, "to promote gender equality and empower women”;
and Goal 5, "to improve maternal health."151 All state parties to the UN
Millennium Declaration in 2000 committed to incorporating these goals into their
own development agendas. A country that is a signatory of the MDGs must
commit to addressing these concerns.¹
Sustainable Development Goals

The new SDGs aim to address the root causes of poverty and inequality in the
world today. The SDGs are built from the Millennium Development Goals and
aimed at continuing the latter's goals and completing the targets by 2030. Below
is one specific goal concerning gender equality along with its associated
targets.

Laws and Policies for Women in the Philippines

Filipino women have been active participants in almost every aspect of positive
social change in the Philippines. The current laws protecting Filipino women's
rights are a testament to our foremothers' determination to fight for gender
equality. The formalization of women's rights started during the post-Martial Law
era, when the 1987 Constitution declared the equality of women and men before
the law.

Women's rights are mandated by the Philippine Constitution. Women play a vital
role in nation-building. Their inclusion in societal structures and processes are key
toward equality and development. 154Republic Act 7192, or the Women in
Development and Nation-Building Act, stems from this portion of
the Constitution. The Act tasked the then National Commission on the Role of
Filipino Women (NCRFW), now the Philippine Commission of Women (PCW) to
provide assistance "in ensuring the formulation and nationwide implementation
of gender-responsive government policies, programs, and projects." The
NCRFW is "the primary policy-making and coordinating body on women and
gender equality concerns. As the oversight body on women's concerns, the PCW
acts as a catalyst for gender mainstreaming, authority on women's concerns, and
lead advocate of women's empowerment, gender equity, and gender equality in
the country."

The PCW is an advisory body to the President and Cabinet members on issues
concerning gender and development. By forming six clusters with civil society
partners and government organizations, the PCW addresses the concerns and
issues highlighted in the CEDAW. It is the monitoring body for the implementation
of gender mainstreaming in the country. The national government then aimed to
adopt gender mainstreaming to address gender issues in all aspects of life.
Executive Order No. 348 created the Philippine Development Plan for Women
(PDPW) for the period 1989-1992. It was the first development plan to integrate
women's interests. It listed the Philippine objectives for gender mainstreaming
and projects until 1992.158 The Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive
Development (PPGD) was later drafted to supplement the PDPW. This 30-year
perspective plan from 1995 to 2025 covers the following domains: the individual,
the family, as well as socio-cultural, economic, political, and legal issues. The
PPGD considers gender and development mainstreaming a priority concern and
seeks to achieve gender equity in all public programs and policies. It was created
to integrate a gender-responsive framework within development plans, policies,
budgets, and programs under the Philippine government. The PPGD was adopted
as the country's implementing vehicle for the Beijing Platform for Action. Like the
BPfA, it pays special attention to women in difficult circumstances by analyzing
national policies and programs that affect these women. Thus, the additional
thrusts on consciousness-raising, advocacy, and affirmative action are included in
the plan.

All government departments, bureaus, offices, agencies, as well as affiliates or

government-controlled corporations are required to formulate and realize a
gender and development (GAD) plan of action that would incorporate gender
perspectives in their institutional frameworks. GAD planning includes allocation of
at least five percent of an agency's total budget to GAD-related programs,
policies, and projects such as gender mainstreaming.

The Philippine government produced two recent publications on gender

mainstreaming. These are the successors of the PDPW and PPGD, which were
created more than two decades ago. The first is the Harmonized Gender and
Development Guidelines published in 2010 by the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), PCW, and the Official Development Assistance
Gender and Development Network. The guidelines are concrete responses to the
Magna Carta of Women, which also calls for gender mainstreaming in all
government programs and policies. The document outlines sector-specific
implementations of the GAD perspective in gender-responsive planning.

Guide Questions

1. What is the advantage of a human rights approach to women's development?

2. How do international treaties provide a context for initiatives on next for
gender mainstreaming in the Philippines?
3. What are some Philippine laws or proposed bills addressing women issues?
4. How would women, and the general public, benefit from policies or laws that
protect and empower women?
5. What are the stated aims of some Philippine women-specific policies and
guidelines mentioned in this chapter? Why are they necessary?

Activity

Look back on your research regarding women's issues in your chosen women's
sector in Chapter 5. Reflect on the data you have gathered and list the laws that
may be relevant to addressing these problems. Evaluate the potential
effectiveness of these policies.

Theories on the Origin of Women's Oppression

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. state his or her own understanding of the roots of sexual discrimination; and
2. explain why discrimination is not necessary for the development of human
civilization and how it evolved based on historical circumstances.

Pre-work for the Chapter

Read some famous myths about women in the beginning of time. Well-known
examples are the stories of Eve and Pandora. Try to articulate how the sources of
these stories view women and their role in society. Reflect on how this view
makes you think about women.

Women's Oppression

The low status of women is something worth wondering about. How did it
happen that half of the world's population is systematically discriminated? Why
do women have lower status than men? Every person deserves the same rights,
regardless of his or her gender. Aside from the basic rights one merits due to
humanity, one must also give value to the traditional role of women. Women are
crucial in food production and preparation. 164 For most of humanity's collective
history, women ensured the survival of the species through foraging and
gathering activities. Foraging provided 90% of an individual's dietary requirements
while hunting provided only 10%.165 Women bear children and, for the most
part, raise their children from infancy up to their early years. Women are also a
source of the cultural and emotional education of children, teaching them how to
navigate the social order. Their primary task in many cultures is taking care of the
family. They were also the first healers given their extensive knowledge of herbs.
It is not only the women's roles that make them important, it is also their biology.
Women bear part of the essential DNA that makes us human. 166 At some point
in all ancient cultures, perhaps even at present, women were hailed mediators to
the gods. 167 Many theories explain why women are oppressed, but so far, none
are conclusive. Discussed in this chapter are some of these theories as compiled
in the work of Rosalind Miles, a feminist writer, journalist, and historian who has
researched the hidden role of women throughout history. These theories will be
supplemented by the findings of other researchers. All these researchers and
theories demonstrate that discrimination against women is not a natural
phenomenon but a situation that evolved through time.

Goddess Worship to God Worship One prominent theory on the oppression of

women concerns the shift of paradigms: from ancient civilizations that
worshipped the earth goddess to the male suppression of this goddess. Indeed,
mysterious women-centric cults existed prior to the phallocentric cults. The
progression from female-centric to male-centric worship was a slow and violent
process. It is one theory on the root of women's oppression. According to Miles,
women were less valued and their status were threatened with the expansion of
phallus worship around 1500 BC.168 She explains that early civilizations first great
gods were women. There is evidence of the worship of a mother goddess figure
5,000 years ago in the major civilizations of the world. This mother figure was
celebrated and venerated for her fertility. Because of this ancient observance, it is
believed that in the past, women were respected more than men, as supported
by the mother goddess. In some cultures, men who wanted to be persons of
power emulated women. In the Philippines, they had to take on the character and
aspect of a woman169 and, in some more ancient civilizations, men's penises
were carved out into vaginas to seize the powers of the goddess. These early
social orders were matriarchies that were characterized as egalitarian and that
allowed for the cooperation between men and women in most areas of life. 170
This theory of early goddess-based social organization stipulates that the worship
of the mother goddess lasted for as long as people experienced the development
of life as a mystery and a gift. At some point, human beings changed the way they
saw and experienced life. A major paradigm shift was thought to have occurred
the moment people started to focus on the empirical, rather than the mythical.
This new understanding of cause and effect was another way of seeing reality. As
people became more interested in controlling food production through
agriculture, the kind of knowledge that focused on cause and effect became
necessary. When this knowledge was harnessed, men realized that they too
played a part in fertility their seed was essential in creating offsprings. Thus, the
phallus cults began to prosper and the pre-eminence of the male and his organ
began to assert itself. Somehow, ancient societies concluded that the source of
life was the penis and not the womb. Because life was not seen as something that
emerged mysteriously from the womb but was planted there by the male organ,
men appropriated for themselves the position of power in the universe. Thus, a
noticeable spread and consequential increase in the cult of the male organ were
observed by 1500 BC. With this development, male power in societies grew
because people believed that the male bore the creative power while the female
was merely the receptive vessel of life in which the seed of man developed.
Women were no longer seen as active partners but as passive incubators. As male
power grew, inequality also rose. Men valued only themselves as powerful,
creative persons. On top of this, they did not want the power of the woman to
regain its prominence and overthrow that of the man. It may explain why men
became particularly oppressive to women. Men had convinced themselves that
they provide the active principle of life and that women were the passive
incubators of life whom men had to rule. They needed to reinforce this belief by
continuously treating women lowly. The theory of the mother goddess cult seems
highly speculative. However, Miles shows historical evidence of this cult through
the appearance of female deities, their prevalence, as well as their destruction.
The mother goddess cult is not taught in mainstream history classes. It is assumed
that the erasure of this belief from history was due to the fact that history has
been written mostly by victors, or in this case, men. The elimination of women's
power came with the unlearning of the fact that women not only had power and
equal rights in ancient civilizations but had extraordinary authority.

Activity
Reflect on the myths of Eve and Pandora. Are there equivalent myths in your own
locality? Recall these myths about women in your local culture and analyze what
they say about women.

● Does it present a positive or negative view about women?

● If you were a female child growing up with such myths, what would have been
your sense of worth?
● If you were a boy, what would you think of women and how would that affect
your relationship with them?
● Discuss the results of your research in groups and explore the effects of myths
about women in our societies.

A Shift of Production The shift to agriculture is likewise a plausible theory for the
suppression of women. Although more stable than hunting and gathering,
agriculture is still a difficult and risky source of food. It requires the investment of
manpower and longer periods of work in one area for an extended amount of
time. This manpower must be committed to the work and to the community that
it is feeding. Thus, human reproduction for the purpose of creating more workers
became a crucial task in society. It was important to keep women at home to
produce and raise children. Reproduction had to be protected and controlled, so
women had to be watched. Women's activities had to be monitored so that it
could be focused on reproduction-so sexuality had to be overseen so that the
community could be assured that the children they produced would become loyal
members of the community. In this theory, suppression of the value of women
and their awareness of their own value are evident so that they would continue
to accept their role as receptive grounds for the seed of men on which the next
generation of workers is to be grown. When productivity increased with the
advent of new farming processes like animal husbandry and plough-based
farming, more laborers were needed to take advantage of the wealth creation
from the greater productivity. Men focused on the agricultural labor because
ploughing is difficult for children. At this point, women were no longer involved in
food production but in laborer production. Historically, those who are involved in
food production were more empowered. 174 Hence, women lost significance in
their communities and were withdrawn from public life when their participation
in the main economic life was reduced. Their withdrawal from public life became
even more pronounced when people-mostly men-were employed as laborers in
the commercial, cash economy. Women raising children were further constrained
from participating in employment when paid work began to take place in
locations away from the home. Because employment that would bring home cash
was becoming necessary for survival, men's roles as paid workers were viewed
more essential while women's functions as housewives were perceived
unproductive. 175 In earlier timelines of history, society had a higher regard for
women than today. Women were venerated for their fertility and were
worshipped for their power to bear life. Historians generally agree that at some
point in history, the society shifted to becoming male-dominated. And with male
domination arose inequality and oppression. 176 Oppression is often justified by
essentialist reasons. Essentialist arguments assert that the oppression of women
is due to the nature of their gender or their socially-constructed roles. Some
people think of women as the lesser sex because of their biological make- up.
Women are smaller and less bulky, hence, cannot become good warriors,
laborers, or athletes. They are fundamentally built for child-bearing and child-
rearing because of these bodies. Not only are their bodies weak, their minds are
perceived weak as well. The woman's mind is assumed incapable of abstract,
logical thinking such that they are believed less capable of scientific and other
highly academic endeavors. Women also come with natural impurities because
they bleed on a monthly basis. Their moral weakness makes them unsuitable
for leadership and meaningful participation in religious rituals. They are also the
primary source of the human's fall from Paradise, thus, cannot be trusted in
building a better world for mankind. Essentially, their moral and psychological
makeup is blamed for their unworthiness of great acts. Whichever way it is
justified and whatever its historical roots are, women are considered the lesser
sex today. Before male domination and gender inequality, there seemed to be a
state where women had a central role in society and much of the shared
communal life was dependent on her labor. It seems that women's status in
present societies needed little justification, if at all. 177 The subjugation of
women is not an essential or necessary state. The liberation of women from this
inequality should be discussed because change can and must happen. But change
will only happen if people are made aware on how the status of women
was constructed. Oppression of women is made possible because of existing
systems that orient people toward oppressing women, not because women are
fundamentally weaker or flawed.

Guide Questions

1. Why were women highly regarded in ancient times?

2. What are the theories tracing the possible root causes of women subjugation
and oppression in history? Explain one.
3. Massive food production and industrialization reinforced the socialized role of
women as home keepers. What are the positive and negative consequences of
these developments on women perception in the society?
4. What is gender essentialism? How does essentialist reasoning contribute to the
oppression of women?
5. What can you do to reshape the prevalent thinking that women are of the
lesser sex?

Chapter 8
Women and education
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. identify the major problems women face in the education sector;
2. explain the value of equality in education for women; and
3. name the policies that protect the rights of women in education.

Pre-work for the Chapter

Reflect on the people and the characters you have recently read about. What
were their genders and characteristics? Were they male and stereotypically
masculine? Which female characters have you read about? Were they active or
passive in their societies? Do you think these women will be empowered and
encouraged to realize their full potential in our present education system?

Gender and Education

Education is a basic human right, one that is essential for the progress of society.
In the past decade, the United Nations (UN) incorporated education as the second
Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The Right to Universal Primary Education
hopes to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.234
While the Millenium Development Goals' time frame has ended, the right to
education still finds itself enshrined as the fourth Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG). This new UN-mandated goal implemented in 2015 aims to "ensure
inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning."235

At the outset, it may be difficult to fathom the gendered aspect of education.

After all, both girls and boys enjoy the right to education. This fact is widely
accepted in the Philippines. Many Filipino parents see education as a way out of
poverty, and thus strive to send their children (regardless of gender) to school in
hopes of a better future. Education has been a priority agenda for most
government and development agencies as reflected in Philippine laws and
policies. The right of both genders to education was a right fought for by various
peoples across the globe. In fact, gender parity has been achieved in primary
education in most parts of the world, including the Philippines. 236 The battle
continues, however, because much has to be done in terms of true gender
equality in education.

Gender can influence an individual's experience with education. It can affect a

person's access to quality education. In some countries, women are still fighting
for their right to education. Some struggle for the basic privilege to take up a non-
traditional course-a course that is not usually associated to a particular gender
role. The quality of education, the knowledge being taught in the classroom, and
the nature of gendered interactions in institutions of education must be
evaluated. Through these assessments, one may realize that gender parity does
not mean gender equality. The positive effects of education on girls
create a more just and equitable society. The benefits include better economic
opportunities, delayed marriage, reduced fertility, better sexual and reproductive
health and rights, and equality and empowerment. 237

This chapter explores education in formal institutions. It tackles gender and

education both theoretically and in practice. The discussions on the issues
surrounding gender and education are connected to a previous chapter on
women's ways of knowing. The structure of education and methods for learning
shall be discussed as women's socialization may have made them learn
differently. The real-world statistics and challenges that women and gender
education face will also be highlighted.

The Importance of Education: An International Perspective

The Importance of Education: An International Perspective
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stresses that education is
everyone's fundamental right; it is something necessary to fulfill one's human
potential. Specifically, primary education is a non-negotiable right that must be
free for all, while technical and professional education, along with higher
education, should be accessible and based on one's merit and skills. 238 The 1989
Convention on the Rights of the Child echoes this right. The value of education is
emphasized in its contribution to the full development of the human person.239
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), which is considered the international bill of rights for women,
necessitates the elimination of the discrimination against women. Specifically, it
states the elimination of discriminatory laws and practices as well as
discriminatory acts against women in institutions of education. 240

Access to primary education is one of the eight MDGs as it is a powerful tool for
social transformation. Education's power lies in the fact that it "is the only formal
institution (aside from the family) that all individuals in societies are required to
pass through. "241 A paper on privatization in education governance showed how
schools produce culture while shaping social norms.242 It highlighted how
structures and processes of education governance shape policy and practice,
opportunity, and outcomes within these structures. School systems determine
who is important and worth listening to, which persons should have influence,
and who should be read in history. In schools, students are taught what
jobs will generate more money, who has power in the current shape of society,
and how to be that person. Hence, education is also a powerful tool for
socialization. A school teaches what is important, such as an individual's
responsibilities in a society and one's potential. Education policies must then
reflect the values of the society one wishes to see. In this respect, education helps
create a just and fair society. Education is a priority sector mentioned in gender
literature in the Philippines. Currently, gender issues in education include non-
sexist curriculum, non-sexist language, freedom in career options, and
the removal of all forms of discrimination.
Education and the Beijing Platform for Action 1995

Education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of
equality, development, and peace. What a person knows can help him or her
improve his or her situation and enhance his or her general state, family's
situation, and overall life. The idea of education as a key strategic tool for gender
equality was solidified in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action (BPA).

The BPFA prioritizes women's and men's equal access to quality education as
education is viewed as key to helping people achieve their full potential. The BPfA
also highlights the importance of investing in formal and non-formal education.

Fast Facts

BPFA and Education

The strategic objectives of the UN Beijing Platform for Action in relation to

education are as follows:
B1. Ensure equal access to education.
B2. Eradicate illiteracy among women.
B3. Improve women's access to vocational training, science and technology, and
continuing education.
B4. Develop non-discriminatory education and training.
B5. Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of
educational reforms.
B6. Promote lifelong education and training for girls and women.
Philippine Laws on Gender-responsive and Gender-fair
Philippine Laws on Gender-responsive and Gender-fair Education

The Filipino's high regard for education comes from the view that education is a
"pillar of national development and a primary avenue for social and economic
mobility."244 The importance of education is ingrained in the Philippine
Constitution: "The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to
quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education
accessible to all."245 Education in the Philippines is a constitutional right,
regardless of one's status in life.
Numerous laws enforce and protect one's right to education, with specific
consideration for the issues that arise from one's strategic and practical gender
needs. Two primary plans that highlight the value of education as an important
social sector are the Philippine Development Plan for Women 1989-1992 (PDPW)
and the Philippine Plan for Gender-responsive Development 1995-2025 (PPGD).
These are updated and supplemented by the Women's Empowerment,
Development and Gender Equality Plan (Women's EDGE Plan, 2013) as well as the
Magna Carta of Women (MCW). All of these documents have target areas for
gender within education, in varying degrees and with varying commitments. The
MCW and the National Economic Development Authority's (NEDA) handbook
Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines for Project Development,
Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation published in 2010 identify other
recommendations to achieve a gender-fair system of education.

Table 5 summarizes the gender issues mentioned in the six pertinent documents
on gender in the Philippines: PDPW 1989-1992, the PPGD, Women's EDGE Plan,
MCW, NEDA's Harmonized Gender and Development Guidelines, and CHED's
2010 Establishing the Policies and Guidelines on Gender and Development in the
Commission on Higher Education and Higher Education Institutions. The first
column of the table on the next page enumerates the criteria, and the second to
sixth columns indicate whether the text mentions these criteria. If the text
mentions the criteria the check mark (✔) is placed in the corresponding column.
Otherwise, it will be marked with [Link] and Development Markers in
Education
Gender and Development Markers in Education

The GAD markers of the NEDA's 2010 Revised Harmonized GAD Guidelines is
designed to help monitor the gender. responsiveness of academic programs and
projects. The NEDA 2010 guidelines for gender mainstreaming have general GAD
monitoring indicators for basic and higher education. Primary and secondary
education used participation, enrollment, and positive performance in
standardized tests as indicators. Meanwhile, in higher education, the
performance of male and female students in licensing and board exams is
assessed, as well as women enrollees, graduates and distribution of gender per
academic degree or program. Ai for employment in the education sector, the
number of teacher or
administrators per gender is evaluated for public, private, and vocational
institutions. The guidelines look at the proportion of women who enroll and
graduate; the courses or academic tracks each gender enrolls in; how gender-
sensitive the school curricula programs, and services are; the presence of non-
sexist career counseling; and mechanisms for addressing sexual harassment on
campus. 246

The NEDA 2010 handbook formulated the criteria for assessing the gender
sensitivity of school curricula, programs, and services. This assessment includes
whether the institution promotes gender-fair language in the classroom or
educational materials, the existence of non-sexist career counseling, as well as
the presence of a Committee on Decorum and Investigation (CODI) for sexual
harassments occurring inside the campus. The inclusion of a GAD agenda in the
teacher's training and education is also a consideration for gender-
responsiveness in education. This agenda must extend to projects, reports, and
policies. Lastly, the NEDA report states that women must participate actively in
the decision-making bodies of a school. It is assessed through the number of
women in educational boards, parent-teacher associations, and teacher's
organizations.

The Women's EDGE Plan addresses previous gaps in the PDPW and PPGD, and
calls attention to emerging issues on gender-responsiveness. The Women's EDGE
Plan by the PCW states that institutions can add and consider gender in all aspects
of education, making the curriculum gender-fair. Through training, teachers are
sensitized to the different needs of all genders, with special consideration to
women. Thus, the school can become a safer and more gender-inclusive place.
Like its predecessors, the Women's EDGE Plan looks at gender biases and
stereotypes in the curricula, the gender-disaggregated statistics concerning
course and gender, gender biases in classroom teaching, discrimination against
students who are pregnant outside of marriage, sexual harassment, and other
forms of violence against women in school. Teen wellness and sexual and
reproductive health and rights are part of the gender mainstreaming agenda.
These factors are included to raise awareness about gender-based violence, 247

The Magna Carta of Women (MCW) is a revolutionary law that seeks to eliminate
other issues women and girls face within education. Specifically, Section 13 of the
MCW adopts the CEDAW by stating that women must have equal access to
scholarships and trainings Similarly, it states that non-acceptance or expulsion of
teachers or students who are pregnant outside of marriage is unacceptable. The
Department of Education Order No. 40, Series of 2012, prohibits any form of
discrimination against any child because of age, sex, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation, and gender identity. Like the MCW, this memorandum prevents
discrimination against teachers and students who become pregnant outside of
marriage. 248

The MCW promotes the addition of women in nontraditional disciplines or

vocational courses within higher education as prescribed by international treaties.
By promoting gender-fair language and the elimination of gender stereotypes in
educational materials, the MCW demands that institutions of education adopt
mechanisms to address these issues. Other institutional mechanisms mandated
by the MCW include teacher trainings to help address gender and development
issues, gender education for those in the education sector, and the creation of
partnerships among and across different sectors involved in education.
Mandating a CODI that will handle sexual harassment cases is hoped to address a
culture of gender-based violence that hinders women from going to school.
However, the MCW does not require institutions to introduce preventative
measures against harassment.

Special measures have to be taken to remove gender as a hindrance for one's

attainment of education. The MCW states specific provisions of three educational
institutions to ensure the protection of women's education. These institutions
include the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
(TESDA). The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is also cited to
provide women from marginalized sectors (indigenous persons (IPs), women in
rural areas. women migrant workers) access to training as deemed necessary.

Gender Issues in EducationGend

er Issues in Education
Currently, gender parity is present in the Philippines, with girls outperforming
boys in terms of test score and degree completion. However, equal access does
not mean that discrimination has been eliminated from education. The Beijing +
20 non-governmental organization (NGO) report shows that issues surrounding
education have more to do with discrimination caused by cultural beliefs and
gender biases. Others include early pregnancy, sexual harassment, lack of
accessible facilities, and access to quality education. The report also maintains
that these barriers to education have an effect throughout women’s lives.

Most development reports prioritize gender in primary and discrimination on

one's access to quality higher education. Thelma Kintanar in her 2013 text,
Gender Concerns on Campus-An Information Kit for College Administrators and
Educators, highlights the gender gaps in higher education. Kintanar believes
it is necessary to analyze the quality of education given to women. Gender
concerns in education, she notes, should include the following issues: gender
balance in the curriculum, sexual harassment on campus, sexism and sexist
language, violence against women (VAW) on campus, and concerns on
sexuality and sexual orientation. The last topic on sexuality acknowledges that
gender and education literature in the Philippines does not directly address LGBT
issues, thus creating a gap. While Kintanar's information kit helps identify
insufficiency in policies and issues to be considered by institutions of higher
education (IHEs), it shows that previous identified issues in literature have yet to
be addressed. 250

Stereotyping as a Violation of Human Rights

Education can be used as a tool to eliminate harmful gender stereotypes.

However, it can also serve as an instrument to keep the status quo because it may
be used as a tool for external regulation on how a specific gender acts. Both
primary and secondary education have a high impact on women in terms of their
life choices, economic security, employment, and life goals. Gender equality
cannot be achieved if these stereotypes are perpetuated in this form.

One key term that has risen from the BPFA is the need to eliminate stereotyping
in gender and education. A 2013 report by the High Commissioner for Human
Rights declares gender stereotyping as a violation of one's human rights. The
report states that misidentifying stereotyping, misunderstanding how
stereotyping affects women, and the non-recognition of behavior and laws that
stereotype harm women. The CEDAW states that there is limited awareness
about stereotyping and its elimination. As a response, the CEDAW requires the
elimination of stereotypes in educational materials along with the promotion of
materials that show women in all aspects of life. It also makes a call to: "modify
the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to
achieving the elimination of prejudices and customs and all other practices which
are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or
on stereotyped roles for men and women..."251

This chapter merits an additional discussion of stereotypes as institutions of

education often normalize roles. Gender stereotypes add to how people perceive
themselves, how they act and reveal their abilities, as well as what job they may
have in the future. Stereotypes are enforced by numerous institutions such as
one's family, community, religious body or church, school, and the mass media.
Within these institutions of education, knowledge is created and reproduced.
Standards are normalized, and more often than not, transplanted to one's work,
organization, and home culture.

Education is regarded as one of the key factors that may either strengthen or
break gender stereotypes. Gender stereotyping occurs when different institutions
such as the family, the church, the school, the state, and the media reinforce a
biased perception of a certain gender's role, 252 For example, women are
stereotyped as caring and meek, and their roles are primarily homemakers and
mothers. These notions can be limiting if viewed as prescriptive of a woman's role
rather than descriptive of one of the many possible roles that men and women
may have. Note that stereotypes include what roles and attitudes women and
men must possess as well as the assumptions on how certain groups (such as the
LGBT) act. The lack of positive representation about gender roles in media can be
dangerous, not only because of the discrimination one may face, but also because
it may disturb one's internalized self-image. For example, men in TV commercials
are always portrayed as strong or dominant. However, if a man does not identify
with this role, it may lower his self-esteem. If a little girl's textbook displays only
men as doctors, she may believe that she cannot be a doctor because of the lack
of images that show women in this role.

Gender stereotyping is a consistent issue in education and merits discussion. The

2013 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report
shows that gender stereotypes has a negative effect on women's access to
education, the quality of education they receive, and the field that they engage in.
Stereotypes that enforce the de-sexualization of young girls make education on
sexual and reproductive health and rights a low priority for women. This issue has
a lasting impact on the reproductive health of women. 254

The Women's EDGE Plan shows that gender stereotypes are found not just in
textbooks, but also in the classroom through "teaching strategies, including
teachers' use of sexist stereotypes in language and the design of classroom
activities. Despite stereotyping being identified as a priority sector in Philippine
education, it has a long way to go.

Issues in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

According to the Philippine Beijing+20 NGO Report, the promotion of women's

successes in the fields of science and technology is lacking. Older textbooks
overlooked female research and achievements in the sciences. Most scientists in
various textbooks are male. Thus, it creates a gap between the genders
represented in the scientists that students learn about. As a result, science
textbooks may not relate to the lived experiences of young women and girls,
making it harder for them to see themselves in this field. While the CHED offers
scholarships to females who wish to enroll in male- dominated courses, access to
these scholarships is limited or their existence is relatively unknown.

The technologically driven state of society necessitates that women be involved in

the creation, development, and maintenance of technologies. Women need math
and science training to have an active role in developing new technologies.
However, female-specific trainings that take into account both physiological and
socialized roles of women seem to be unavailable so that many research priorities
are still inclined toward male interests. Hence, the scientific world needs people
who can use technology to alleviate women's practical and strategic gender
needs.

Non-traditional Skills Training

More support for women is still needed in the agricultural sector, as well as in the
informal sector. This necessity entails further career counseling that cover non-
traditional skills for girls. These non-traditional skills are vital for women to grab
economic opportunities. Given the sex-stereotyped role of
women in the economy, their jobs in the public sphere are often similar to their
reproductive roles at home. The skills necessary for these jobs, since learned from
their gender socialization, may not translate into high-paying jobs. This
observation is the root of other issues in education such as the lack of women in
STEM fields, as well as the lack of valuation attached to jobs associated with
feminine gender roles like caregiving.

The Multiple Burdens of Women as a Factor

Women often have to juggle multiple roles, depending on where they are in
society. At a very young age, some girls are already mothers. Those from
marginalized sectors need to work harder, albeit informally, to supplement their
family's meager income. Other girls do chores or take care of their younger
siblings while their parents are looking for economic opportunities. Women from
different sectors also face different challenges to complete their education.

Young mothers who have yet to finish schooling have to prioritize the well-being
of their child, making the completion of their studies difficult to fulfill. Young
pregnant students are also stigmatized in their school, given the taboo nature of
teenage and pre-marital sex in the Philippines. The stigma over young mothers
must be eradicated so that these girls may be able to complete their education. In
addition, the government must build facilities that can help young mothers and
children who provide care for their younger siblings- attend and finish school.

The Necessity of Material Support

While there are public schools and other forms of free education in various parts
of the world, the cost of school supplies, transportation, and other factors affect
the ability of girls to attend school. There must be more monetary support to
make education more available to girls in marginalized sectors.

Inhibited Access to Education

Special issues affect a child's access to education, namely urban relocation to
communities outside disasters, indigenous of Metro Manila, natural and the
encampment of military forces in school sites of peoples. Some families are
relocated to far-flung areas where there is no nearby school, and children have to
walk for hours just to get to school. Girls walking long distances especially on
dimly lit streets as part of their commute face higher risk for street harassment
and VAW.256 Girls' access to education is also affected by natural disasters and
conflicts as these events damage school facilities and cause lack of safety in the
area, and shortage of teachers. 257 Similarly, schools of young IPs have been used
for encampment by military forces. School operations are often shut down
indefinitely during encampment to accommodate these armed forces. Girls and
women in these situations are often at risk for violence and harassment. 258

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

The limited sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in the Philippines can
affect one's access to education. The increase in teenage pregnancy in the
Philippines259 is a major factor for the high drop-out rate of female students.
While the Magna Carta of Women prohibits the discrimination against pregnant
women from accessing education, pregnant students are still victims of cultural
discrimination in their institutions. Young mothers and fathers may also drop out
of school to support their families or take care of their children. The Responsible
Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 requires public academic
institutions to teach age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health topics.
Private schools, however, are not required to teach this course. Thus, there
appears to be a limited space for discussion of issues on SRHR.

Gender-fair Textbooks and Programs

According to the 2015 PCW report for the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform
for Action, DepEd makes numerous efforts to correct gender biased textbooks,
teaching materials, and methods in accordance with the MCW and Women's
EDGE Plan. These endeavors may include the addition of gender-sensitive
instructional materials in science high schools as provided by the Department of
Science and Technology. How exactly this effort will address the STEM issues
mentioned in the previous sections is yet to be discussed. One of DepEd's plans is
to incorporate gender-sensitive principles into teaching guides for primary and
secondary education. However, DepEd has not introduced a core subject on
gender and socialization, gender and development, and the like.

Inclusive Education and Alternative Learning Systems

DepEd recognizes the need for alternative learning systems to help out-of-school
youth and older students who have yet to complete their basic education. DepEd
also pushes for the creation of Madrasah schools for the education of Muslim
students and the indigenous peoples. This flexibility is necessary for students who
were not able to complete their primary education due to circumstances such as
the financial issues, early pregnancy, relocation and displacement, and natural
disasters. This display of sensitivity is essential in addressing gendered issues
experienced by the students that come from different sectors. Several agencies
have also heightened their call for the integration of women and girls with
disabilities in regular schools. This plan can be achieved through the
institutionalization of a Leadership Training Manual for female PWDs developed
by the National Commission on Disability Affairs, 200

Male Performance in Schools

Statistics show an increase in female participation and a decrease in male

performance in schools. This disparity calls for a need to find out why there is a
larger percentage of male students who drop out of school or do not enroll in the
first place. What are the issues affecting boys in education? Part of the feminist
agenda is to increase men's not just women's participation in education.

Sexual Violence in Education

One marker of a gender-responsive university is a clear protocol for sexual

harassment, including mechanisms for addressing sexual harassment cases on
campus. 261 Sexual harassment has been tackled extensively in the previous
chapter about violence; however, the impact of this form of violence on
education merits discussion. Sexual violence is a form of discrimination against
mostly women. It is usually women who are victims of sexual violence and
harassment in schools, which contributes to higher and earlier drop-out rates, as
well as their lower academic achievement. Sexual violence inhibits women and
girls from participating in the education sector and accessing and continuing their
education. 242 It must be noted, however, that sexual harassment happens to
men and members of the LGBT as well.

The Philippines' Anti-Sexual Harassment Law of 1995 defines sexual harassment

as the demand of a sexual act or favor in an institution, wherein the person who
demands the act is in moral ascendancy or influence over the person being
solicited.

Sexual harassment in education can be committed if the person soliciting the

sexual act is taking care of, supervising, training, or tutoring the person being
solicited. In the case of students, it covers the following persons: a teacher,
instructor, professor, coach, or trainer. The request for a sexual act is
considered harassment if the act is necessary for a passing grade, a scholarship, or
certain benefits within the institution. 263 A sexual request or advance can also
be sexual harassment if it results in "an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
environment for the student, trainee, or apprentice. "264 Students are
particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment because of the power dynamics
between the students and those of moral ascendancy. The society's high respect
for persons of authority, the importance given to education, and the taboo nature
of sex and sexuality make students vulnerable to sexual harassment. Students'
trust in a person of moral ascendancy in their school, alongside their youth and
immaturity, make them unaware that they are being harassed. Some students
may see harassment as something that is just another part of their lives. 265
Others may be unable to fight back because of the fear of repercussions, such as
the stigma attached to sexual acts or the implication for their academic or
extra-curricular standing.

Sexual harassment and violence in schools are symptomatic of the lack of gender-
responsiveness in education. 266 The Philippines has a long way to go in this
regard. No system is available to consolidate the number of sexual harassment
cases in education, both public and private. Stigma also revolves around the
reporting of these cases. The Philippine law lacks precise qualifications for the
term "hostile environment" on sexual harassment. No institutions address gaps
on campus interactions-the unspoken culture in the classroom and within the
institution. Lastly, there are no provisions for peer- to-peer and subordinate-to-
superior harassment. 267 While some institutions have their own mechanisms to
address these gaps in the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act, there is a call for the
strengthening of the CODI in schools. The NEDA guidelines 268 see the presence
or absence of mechanisms to address sexual harassment in the education setting
as an indicator of the gender-responsiveness of an institution.
CHED Memorandum Order No. 1, series of 2015, has a lengthy section detailing
the recourse for those who experience sexual harassment in their IHES.

A Gendered Education and a Gendered Curriculum

Gender plays an important part in how a person experiences the world, what one
learns, and how one relates to the topics in the classroom. Education as an
institution tells students about who is important, and who is in power, and what
values and characteristics are important to succeed in life. Alternatively, it
imparts to students how to participate in the world that had been set up by
certain powers. The current curriculum was shaped by years of highlighting men's
experience and feats, while making women's experiences invisible. The resulting
form of education is based on how men were socialized to learn and experience
life, which promotes stereotypically masculine characteristics such as
assertiveness and dominance. The content of the curriculum, as well as the form
in which this content is taught, prepares both young girls and boys how to
succeed in a male world; men play dominant roles and are heads of
institutions, and women must fight twice as hard to be considered in these
institutions. 270

A gender-biased curriculum gives a one-sided view of the subjects being taught.

Students only learn the experiences and knowledge of half the population, and
may have a skewed understanding of the world they live in. One could say that
women's lived experiences were not taken into consideration when creating this
curriculum as women's work, experience, and contribution to the society has
continuously been ignored. An important part of knowing women's participation
in society is knowing their contributions to history. While one can argue that only
a few women were worthy of inclusion in history textbooks, one must realize that
the standard of "worth" was created by those in power in a patriarchal society.
Certain subjects, for example in literature, have more women as subjects of the
texts being studied, but not as authors. While more female writers of historical
significance are coming to light, most texts being studied now are still written by
men. Similarly, women artists must be recognized as producers of arts, not just
subjects to be gazed at. Part of the process for making education gender-fair is to
document women's achievements in various fields.
Women's studies must be recognized as a legitimate discipline. This
acknowledgment will bring to light the topic of women in society and history.
Knowledge must not be dichotomized between female and male knowledge. The
curriculum must be transformed to incorporate both perspectives into all
disciplines.

Activity

Observe your teachers in the other subjects, as well as the organizations you
belong to. Discuss the following questions and write on answers on piece of
paper. Include your reflections as well.

Education

Look for patterns of communication between your teacher and your classmates.
Do teachers have special treatment for a certain sex? Who do they call to recite
often? Do they ask one sex to answer questions more than the other?
Why do you think this is so? Why is the gender of the persons your professors use
an examples in class? Do they keep using women as examples or men? Or is your
teacher able to use both?

Leadership Education

What jobs are you assigned to in your student organizations?

Who does the lifting/carrying of the heavy things?
Are there incidents of you being talked over by another person?
Who has done this? Or have you done this to others?

The Unspoken Curriculum: Campus Culture and Gender

The following section discusses the different issues that were mentioned in
passing by the development reports. These concerns contribute to socialization
and how people continue to carry themselves in their communities.
Microaggression and education

Microaggression is a subtle form of aggression towards a historically marginalized

social group which may be intentional or unintentional. Originally, Derald Wing
Sue and colleagues used the microaggression theory to map the racism people of
color experience in the United States, focusing on the "stress associated with
maintaining their identities within [contexts] of social stigma."273
Microaggression may also apply to women who have been historically
marginalized. Women have been targets of different forms of discrimination, with
the school serving as a form of external social control that may pressure a female
student into pursuing a certain stereotype because of her gender. This type
of aggression can be put-downs, conscious or unconscious, that can cause
psychological harm, self-doubt, and a lack of confidence. 274

The microaggression theory frames the subtle biases students may experience in
their schools that have a large impact on how they act, see themselves, and even
their careers later in life. It must be discussed in the context of education given
the highly vulnerable situation of students due to their lack of experience,
subordinate position, sex, or gender. It is also a theory that in related to how boys
and girls are supposed to act in the classroom (girls are quiet and must not strain
themselves, boys are loud and should participate in physical activities). There can
be many forms of microaggression against a person because of multiple facets of
one's identity. One's race, residence, religion, and even type of family (single
mother, second family, etc.) are other subjects of microaggressive comments.
However, institutions of education contribute largely to gender, and hence, to
microaggression as well.

This observation reinforces the need for a simultaneous shift to gender-fair

education and teacher training, and the removal of sexist language and
stereotypes in textbooks and teaching materials to reduce the effects of
microaggressions on young and impressionable children. Below are examples of
microaggressions concerning the female gender.

● The sexual objectification of women

● Assumption of inferiority about a certain gender
● Assumption of traditional gender role
● Use of sexist language
● Denial of one's individual sexism
● Invisibility, denial of reality of sexism
● Subtle and discriminatory messages communicated in school
● Exoticization of women from a certain race
Though this book focuses on women, LGBT-specific microaggressions that are
different from the aforementioned are also included. The following examples will
add to the awareness on microaggressions against other genders.27

● Use of heterosexist or transphobic terminology

● Assumption of universal LGBT experience
● Endorsement of heteronormative or gender normative culture and behavior
● Exoticization of LGBTs
● Discomfort with the approval of LGBTs
● Denial of the reality of heterosexism or transphobia
● Assumption of sexual pathology or abnormality especially in which people
oversexualize LGBTs
● Denial of one's individual heterosexism
● Bullying and relational aggression

The way women have been socialized affects what they do and how they relate to
one another. Bullying and corporal punishment are both issues in the Philippines,
especially in public schools. Yet, both issues have a gendered dimension that
merits discussion. While women are traditionally associated with being weak and
docile, they also get angry and fight. There is little Philippine literature on this
issue, as other concerns may be more pressing. However, studies abroad show
that the manner in which women fight and the psychological damage it causes, as
well as the reason for fighting, have a great impact on how they relate to one
another in the future. While adult women argue and fight in other institutions,
how they fight is formed in schools.

Aside from fighting, bullying is also a general issue in schools. Bullying, as defined
by R.A. 10627, is a physical, verbal, electronic gesture or act directed toward a
student that aims to place that student in a state of fear or panic, which disrupts
the students education. The Republic Act, however, only covers elementary and
secondary education. 278 Typical examples of bullying are emotional bullying,
unwanted physical contact, shoving, kicking, and fighting. Emotional bullying
involves name-calling, tormenting or humiliating a person, or any act that can
cause the victim emotional distress. Technology is also a means to perpetuate
bullying through cyberbullying.

Bullying or pupil-on-pupil violence is often gender-neutral. However, as written in

a few studies that discuss how girls and boys fight, women use emotional abuse in
their fights, which is often more damaging than physical abuse. This abuse is
known as relational aggression, defined as "acts that harm others through
damage (or the threat of damage) to relationships or [feelings] of acceptance,
friendship, or group inclusion." 280 This abusive behavior includes repetitive
threats, brainwashing, and physical and emotional isolation. It is another form of
bullying, but is usually ignored because it is so subtle, or so normalized that it is
merely seen as another way of girls relating to one another. Valerie Besag studied
why girls fight more than boys and why there is more tension between girl
friendships and relationships. She noted that quarrels occur more often between
girls who previously had close relationship than girls who had no prior connection.
281

A study by Currie, Kelly, and Pomerantz uncovers adolescent meanness and

relational aggression as a way for young girls to police their peers' femininity, as
well as enact their agency. Their 2007 study looked at meanness and girls' agency
in girls ages 13-16. They found that relational aggression is often non-
confrontational. Effects of relational aggression come in the form of one's
damaged self-esteem or social status. 282

The social construction of girls' identity makes them aggressive to others. If this
behavior against other girls has no real resolution, it may be carried over on how
women's relationships develop in the long term. Relational aggression becomes a
problem when girls are hindered from confronting their issues with themselves
and with others, meaning that the problem is never properly resolved Because
girls are socialized to be indirect, the manner in which they approach problems is
affected. Some forms of microaggression may also be considered relational
aggression, from girls teasing others because of what they own, who their friends
are, and how they act. This microaggression may be the result of their
socialization as girls who are supposed to acknowledge and enact only one form
of femininity. Students may police each other based on their perception of proper
femininity, depending on the rules their schools purport. Not all sexisms are
enacted by men, and some considerations for a positive gender culture occur
outside the classroom. Thus, policy is not everything. The beliefs and culture of
the students can continue to affect gender relations.

Campus Culture
The compounded effect of relational aggression, microaggression, and classroom
culture creates a campus culture. Culture can be defined as "shared
characteristics and norms of particular nationalities or sub- or cross-national
groups."283 It also covers groups with shared identities such as religious groups
or LGBT communities. For this text, campus culture is defined as the culture
formed within a school based on the shared values of the institution. Educational
institutions may have distinct cultures per group or identity in a given setting.
Many types of campus culture exist, formed by different values and activities,
284With the caveat that campus cultures are subject to change and may well
contain sub-cultures of their own, we can see student cultures and consciousness
as forged through the intellectual values of institutions as well as through social
activities, clubs and fraternities, and other non-academic spheres of activity such
as student activism. 285

Sample Case

The following are real-life examples of relational aggression between groups of

girls.

• Ellen is a girl who likes to talk about her boyfriend. She shares that her friends
do not like hearing about this, and walk away when she starts talking about her
boyfriend. It got to the point where they would also walk away when she had
something else to say, and looked away when she tried to speak with them. This
is a form of physical isolation.

• Kaye's classmate Pat was disliked by her whole class. The class considered Pat
crass because of her make-up and clothing choices, as well as her loud behavior.
The girls would call her nicknames behind her back, until the whole class was
talking about her using that nickname. They would talk about her even if she was
present, without her knowing. Kaye shared that Pat was devastated when she
found out, but could not do anything about this. Kaye eventually apologized to
Pat, but the damage had already been done.

Repetitive threats may come in the form of name-calling, normalizing the non-
confrontational nature of relational aggression. For example, instead of accepting
Pat for who she is, or talking to her about her bothersome behavior, she become
the subject of gossips within her earshot and without her knowing.
Campus culture is determined by those inside the school, from the faculty, staff,
teachers, and students present. The overarching principles of the institution, the
values it upholds, and the activities held on campus contribute to the formation
of culture given a certain context or time frame. Campus culture may also be
influenced by outside factors such as policies set up by trends in development and
budgeting priorities. 286

Campus culture strengthens and is affected by the hidden curriculum in the

classroom, implicit rules, and "everyday school practices which reinforce gender
differentiation." These practices include school traditions, events and occasions,
and even teaching styles in the classroom that may promote gender stereotypes.
The hidden curriculum is shaped by institutionalized mechanisms, implicit and
explicit rules,norms, and symbols that have sexist ideals at their roots. These
components of campus culture often privilege men and overlook women and
other marginalized groups,

Peer culture also contributes to campus culture as it plays an important role in

gender socialization, from acceptable behavior and interaction between the same
sex and opposite sex. Girls and boys both police each other as to what they deem
to be acceptable gender behavior, 289 from lad culture for the boys to relational
aggression for the girls.

The school may attempt to be gender-fair and gender-responsive. However, it

must balance the values of the students and surrounding communities. If the
school is located in a community that is more traditional in its views of gender
roles or has sexist traditions and customs, the school can do so little to challenge
the systemic sexism its students are exposed to at home. However, it can conduct
education seminars for parents to change these patterns, such that the students'
growth is not hindered and the values of the community can change for the
better.
Futu
Future Steps, Looking Forward
re Steps, Looking Forward
Twenty years after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, gains have
been noted insofar as education and training of women and girls are concerned.
Women have received gender parity in education in most countries across the
globe. However, school culture and discriminatory practices against both women
and men still greatly hinder gender equality. What is clear is that there must be a
constant push for gender equality in all aspects of education, from curriculum to
programs and services, as well as campus culture and other interactions.

Guide Questions

1. Cite the Philippine laws and policies aiming for a gender-fair and gender-
responsive education.
2. What problems are women facing in the education sector? How do existing
policies address these
issues?
3. Has the Philippines achieved gender parity in education? What about gender
equality in education?
4. How do schools unconsciously promote the harmful biases of gender
stereotyping?
5. What is the importance of investing in quality education for both women and
men?

Activity

Think about your experiences as a student. What feelings arise when you hear
issues regarding violence in your campus? If you yourself are a victim of
discrimination, how did you feel during that incident? Can you think of ways that
could reform this campus culture? As a class, create a campaign that will raise
awareness in your campus regarding the forms discrimination that exist.

CHAPTER 17
Masculinity
☑ Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:
1. explain the importance of understanding that masculinity is a construct; and
2. state why the concept of masculinity can be oppressive to men.

Pre-work for the Chapter

Think about the questions below. Discuss them with your friends and parents.
Reflect on how your findings about maleness as enforced by various institutions
affect men's behavior. How do boys become boys? What makes a boy a boy as
imposed:
● by your friends?
● by your school?
● by your church?
● by the media?

Compare your answers with those of your classmates. How are your findings
similar to each other? How are they different?

Men and Gender Studies

When asking various male friends what they would like to see in a book on
gender, the topic of maleness was brought up. "A book on women should include
men as well," said one friend. Another shared that gender equality is yet to be
proven beneficial. This friend is a straight male who could not see what gender
equality had to do with him. Another said that talks on gender tended to center
around women only and never included men in the discussion; hence, he felt
gender equality is a self-defeating cause. At first, these responses incited
indignation. How could gender equality be seen as anything but beneficial both to
women and men? Did men truly lack empathy or a capacity to care for women?
Similarly, the idea of centering the discussion on men seemed selfish. Is it not
enough that men had a privileged position throughout history? Would discussing
men's issues just another way of focusing men back to the limelight in a book that
was supposed to be about women's issues? Nonetheless, reflecting on this issue
further, the feminist indignation gave way to understanding. After all, it is
necessary to have both genders pushing for gender equality to have a truly
inclusive society.
This chapter will discuss the idea of manhood and masculinities from both local
and international data. While information on masculinities in the Philippines is
available, few discussions tackle youth and masculinity. The idea of the male
gender as a gender also lacks discussion because men are often seen as
the template for all genders; any deviations from the male heterosexual template
are seen as different.

The discussion of masculinities will center around straight or heterosexual

cisgender men. Straight means that these men are attracted to people from the
opposite gender, such as women. Cisgender means that these men see
themselves as men, and often ascribe to themselves the role of the masculine self
as dictated by society. It is important to discuss that masculinity is the prevalent
notion which shapes all aspects of society, from politics and legislation to
schoolyard interactions. Only then can one see the effect of gender inequality and
gender socialization on both genders.

Beginning of Masculinity
Beginning of Masculinity
Carol Gilligan, an American psychologist known for her study of women's ways of
learning, noted that women's socialized roles as caregivers tasked them with the
responsibility of caring for young children. Girls who see an older woman doing a
certain task will associate the gender with that task. Women, then, are trained
from childhood to be caring and nurturing. This view is learned through
emulation. Hence women's ways of knowing are relational. Women learn
femininity through association or attachment. 383

More traditional models of the household have the men working solely outside of
their homes, making them absent during a child's early years. This scenario leaves
young boys with no male model to learn from. The presence of the female and
absence of the male lead to boys learning masculinity through dissociation from
their mothers. There is a conscious attempt to separate themselves from what
they see as "women's tasks." Men's ways of knowing are then more distanced.
The analysis of boyhood shows that men learn to be men through dissociation
and separation-posited by Gilligan as the root of men's problems.

Boys, and then later young men, learn masculinity from what they see on media
and interactions in their schools. The lack of empathy of men may be rooted in
the fact that they are actually socialized to be unlike women who must have
empathy to raise children. What then happens when what is shown on TV
normalizes sexism violence and the objectification of women?

What Makes a Man a Man?

What Makes a Man a Man?
One can say that man is strong, but the degree of strength one may have depends
on age, biology, and physical ability. Similarly, people may have different kinds of
strength, from physical to emotional and even mental. Is a man less of a man
because he is physically weaker than his wife? Or because he earns less than hin
female counterpart? Manhood is something that one can through adjectives
tough, brave, strong but whose definition is often continuously evolving.
Sociologist Michael Kimmel, for example, describes the specific meaning of
masculinity to be fluid, though one thing remains constant: the need to prove
one's masculinity, regardless of how it is defined in a given culture at a specific
period of time. 384

In his book, Kimmel identifies four rules of American masculinity in the 1970s as
described by psychologist

Robert Brannon:

1. No Sissy Stuff: Masculinity is based on the relentless repudiation of the

feminine. Masculinity is never being a sissy.
2. Be a Big Wheel: We measure masculinity by the size of your pay check. Wealth,
power, and status are all markers of masculinity. As a U.S. bumper sticker put it:
"He who has the most toys when he dies, wins."
3. Be a Sturdy Oak: What makes a man a man is that he is reliable in a crisis. And
what makes him reliable in a crisis is that he resembles an inanimate object. A
rock, a pillar, a tree.
4. Give 'em Hell: Exude an aura of daring and aggression. Take risks; live life on
the edge. Go for it.

While these factors may have changed, some remain true until today but in
different forms. Joseph Vandello and Jennifer Bosson, two psychologists who
study manhood, added that there are various forms of masculinities, although at
a given time, only one masculinity dominates the gender hierarchy above all
femininities and other masculinities. This is known as the "hegemonic
masculinity.” 385 It explains why some men who act a certain way feel as though
they can dominate both men and women. Vandello and Bosson also show factors
that surround manhood: it is hard to win; requires constant proof; and is easy to
lose, 386

Proving Masculinity

Gender is an identity that is socially constructed through interaction. The constant

need to prove one's masculinity along with the notion that it is hard to win and
easy to lose makes one wonder: Who do men need to prove themselves to? One
myth of manhood is that men act to prove themselves to women. But the fact
that masculinity is so strongly connected to a shared gender identity shows that
men must constantly prove their masculinity to other men. Men perform their
masculinity mostly to and for other men. They also compare themselves to other
men as was done in childhood learning. Women may even be the objects or the
means to the end of impressing other men.

As stated by Vandello and Boson, first, manhood is hard to win. While no actual
rituals signal the transition of a boy into manhood, various subcultures devise
ways to initiate a boy into male adulthood. These rituals may include initiation
processes to enter fraternities, gangs, or even clubs. Others may win manhood
through physical activities, sports, or even through public acts of homophobia.
The idea that manhood requires proof places men in positions to commit
dangerous or violent tasks. Alternatively, men will also avoid or even ridicule tasks
that challenge their manhood, such as doing activities normally performed by
women. 387

An example of masculine culture is lad culture. It is a "variety of masculinities and

cultures in UK university communities, which men and women may move into and
out of, but which may shape their identities and attitudes and frame their
experience of university life. "388

Lad culture is a concept often linked to the crisis of masculinity in the West. In this
campus culture, men in colleges or universities perpetuate traditions that
objectify and sexualize others, usually women and the LGBT. This practice is done
to reclaim their "manhood" as a possible backlash to feminism and the
empowerment of women. Lad culture is related to raunch culture because of the
potential and actual harm it can cause students, from binge drinking to
harassment. It is often associated with pressing issues such as violence against
women in schools, sexual harassment, and discrimination against the LGBT,
certain religious groups, or ethnicities. 389

In the U.S., the counterpart of lad culture is the hookup culture on campuses.
Here, sexual activity is regarded as the transition marker from boyhood into
manhood. The use of sexuality to define masculinity has shown that boys either
use their socialized gender traits to enact their sexuality, or use their sexuality to
represent their socialized gender traits power, detachment, competition.
Dominant public norms tell men to distance themselves emotionally from
women, objectify girls, and sleep around. Women then become the means to an
end-for men to show their virility and power. However, these norms prevent men
from experiencing deep and intimate relationships. 390An Aversion to the

An Aversion to the Feminine: Masculinity as Homophobiaminine: Masculinity as

Homophobia
Manhood at its essence is still defined in relation to womanhood or in opposition
to women. Women and non-dominant masculinities are seen as the "other," in
"which heterosexual men project their identities, against whom they stack the
desks as to compete in a situation that they will always win, so that by
suppressing them, men may stake a claim for their own manhood."391

The argument for the conditions of manhood blinds people to the content of
manhood or the behavior that men must display. 392 This content is equally
important to note as it provides the behaviors expected of men and the behaviors
that can add to one's understanding of why men do what they do and how
gender drives these behaviors. One example is the condemning of non-masculine
actions. Boys, for example, are severely punished for acting in a non-masculine
way. A true man must then have aversions to anything feminine, or consciously
declare themselves as secure with their masculinity before doing anything
stereotypically feminine.

A study by Kimmel393 shows that masculinity may be studied in relation to school

shootings in the U.S. The perpetrators of these school shootings were all male
who did do not fall under the typical male figure. These boys were teased, bullied,
and beaten up. More often than not, they were ostracized. Often, their sexuality
would be called into question as they may have failed to enact the dominant
masculinity of their school. Nearly all of these boys were bullied because they
were different, not because they were actually gay. Their ultimate revenge (the
school shooting) seemed to be their final act to prove themselves as men, or as
revenge against those who bullied them for being "different" and not ascribing to
the male code of that school.394

Masculinity, through its dissociation with women and femininity, may have
become a form of homophobia. Homophobia is not the fear itself of gay men, but
the fear that a man can and will become gay or feminine. Kimmel sees
homophobia as the cause of sexism, racism, and heterosexism39s as it is
an aversion to becoming the "other" or the non-dominant masculinity. In its
extreme self, masculinity then is the desire to be not women or not feminine
which has become fragile due to the changing gender norms of society.

Masculinity as PowerMasculinity as
Power
The ever-pervading fear of losing one's masculinity may be tied to the fear of
losing power. Masculinity is about power: a masculine man is a powerful man
who controls various resources. When the masculinity of a man is challenged, he
loses power unless he defends himself. It is challenged when a man is
associated with the feminine or perhaps when he is seen defending women or
members of the LGBT. While making sexist, homophobic, or racist statements is
often part and parcel of heterosexual masculinity, silence and consent to these
put-downs result in gender-based violence and oppressive structures thriving in a
society. Kimmel notes: "Shame leads to silence-the silence that keeps other
people believing that we actually approve of the things that are done to women,
to minorities. to gays and lesbians in our culture. The frightened silence
as we scurry past a woman being hassled by men on the street. That furtive
silence when men make sexist or racist jokes in a bar. That clammy-handed
silence when guys in the office make gay-bashing jokes. Our fears are the sources
of our silences, and men's silence is what keeps the system running. This
might help to explain why women often complain that their male friends or
partners are so often understanding when they are alone and yet laugh at sexist
jokes or even make those jokes themselves when they are out with a group. "396

This fear causes silence that is mistaken for consent-men consent to what is being
done to women and the LGBTs, those without power, and the like. Those who do
not speak up condone gay bashing, rape jokes, and sexist comments. Accepting
these comments keeps this harmful system running. Masculinity has this power
over men-the fear of becoming effeminate when they stand to defend the non-
dominant masculinity. This fear is a representation demonstrating that a society
thinks lowly of women.

Men as the Masculine Generic and Male Entitlementn as the Masculine Generic
and Male Entitlement
When people think of gender, they readily think of the female or the LGBTs, and
rarely the male. Men are viewed as the masculine generic, largely the reason why
gender studies often only bring women to mind. Privilege has made a man's
gender invisible-a man's gender is not important or essential to is being, as
there are no societal barriers that hinder him from accessing goods because of his
gender. However, gender is, in fact, something that greatly influences a man's life.

The lack of recognition that men are gendered beings has excluded men from
conversations on gender. After all, masculinity was defined mostly by women and
how they see and experience masculinity. This lack of recognition has made
women's, the LGBT's, and other's fights for gender equality a fight that is
solely a non- straight, non-male concern. This view was very different from how
men saw themselves. Men do not know that they are to be included in this
discourse since they are not considered as gendered beings. Men may see
themselves as weak despite the fact that numerous privileges are afforded to
them at work, in school, and while growing up. The gender movement constantly
speaks of men and their privilege, yet men are not aware of it because of the
damaging idea of manhood that society forces on men. Even those in power may
be constrained by gender. Furthermore, men may feel the need to prove their
manhood through violence, addiction, and oppressing non- dominant groups.

Men and Fragile MasculinitiesMen and Fragile Masculinities

One buzzword that surrounds masculinity involves what is called fragile

masculinities. Men have the privilege of being the generic template of a human
being. Women will always wake up and see themselves as women because
society constantly brings attention to their womanhood. Men, given their
privilege, may ignore their gender completely. Unless society challenges or brings
attention to their manhood, it will never be questioned. Masculinity is fragile
because it can be easily lost as discussed in the previous section.

One may state that these issues are imaginary and that men are privileged
enough to overcome these issues given the power granted to them by the society.
However, this is not always the case as shown by the gender-role conflict scale
(GRCS). The GRCS describes the "amount of psychological conflict, anxiety,
tension, and general negative emotion surrounding the male gender role."397 It
states that having one's masculinity challenged causes the greatest stress in most
men, and that those with high levels of this type of anxiety are less likely to seek
counseling. Ironically, this problem is due to men's socialized gender role that
assigns men as strong and cool, able to ignore emotions, and the like. The very
source of one's anxiety is what keeps one from seeking help.

The idea of precarious manhood perhaps comes from the idea that women
indeed have been changing their ways of life. With manhood as something that is
so easily challenged or lost, it is difficult to maintain manhood if the very thing
men have used to define themselves is changing. After all, womanhood is
retained, inherited, inborn, and remains secure.

The Responsibility of Man

The Responsibility of Man
Michael Kimmel, in his address in the 2001 International Women's Day Seminar,
had this to say about men in gender equality: "I believe that the reason that the
movement for women's equality remains only a partial victory has to do with
men. In every arena-in politics, military, workplace, professions, and education-
the single greatest obstacle to women's equality is the behaviors and attitudes of
men. "398

He adds that it is necessary to change the attitudes of men towards gender

equality, to show them that it is also beneficial to them as men to be allies for
gender equality. 399 After all, it takes both genders' cooperation to change a
sexist culture.

Women have seen radical changes concerning how society treats their gender,
from school and workplace inclusion to policies that fight for their reproductive
rights. Men's rights have remained the same. There has been little to no changes
in their experience of work or sexuality. Men's gender identity being rooted in
their dissociation with women may be viewed as the cause for men's gender
confusion-unlike women who have been afforded the same opportunities
through gender equality. Unexpectedly, what men have used to define their
masculinity has taken over their masculine roles. Men have no way to adjust to
their changing gender role precisely because they do not see themselves as
gendered being. Perhaps an end to traditional masculinity, given its harmful
nature, could be the big step in the direction of global equal rights. 400Is the

Is the Philippines a Masculine Country?

ilippines a Masculine Country?
The six-dimension model of national culture by Geert Hofstede shows the "six
basic issues that [a] society needs to come to terms with in order to organize
itself. 401 The Philippines leans towards what he calls a masculine society (64 on a
scale of 1 to 100), meaning that the Philippines may be driven to realize masculine
values. These values include "competition, achievement, and success." They put a
premium on achievement through winning, or being the best in one's field. On
the other hand, feminine values involve caring for others, and about the quality of
life in the community. While the Philippines is community-oriented, its focus is
currently on global competition and personal achievement. 402

The Filipino masculinity is changing due to migration and globalization. Filipinos in

general are becoming more Westernized. Since the advent of colonization and the
creation of modern Philippine society, men were made to be dominant, tough,
and oriented toward building camaraderie among themselves. Up to this day, the
male barkada is seen as a brotherhood, a space for men to be men, free from
their wives and responsibilities as it is accepted that men often needed a break
from their work and home life. Some men who were seen as subjected under
their wives' control ("under the saya") were free to express themselves among
their barkada. The so-called forms of typical Filipino masculinities seem to express
this gender's need to assert its dominance and capability. Filipino masculinities
are driven by their status as the main actors in the public realm-as drivers of
development and wealth creation. Even in pre-Hispanic times, ritual feasting,
conspicuous consumption, and displays of skill and strength were means to assert
the worth of men as pillars of the community. However, women were more
involved in the public sphere during this period and the values of machismo may
not have been so pervasive. With the imposition of Western civilization, women
were excluded and male clubs and male capacities were given higher regard.
Masculinities were constructed in a way that pressured Filipino men to be more
manly and to not exhibit female characteristics. Numerous forms of masculinities
are actually present in literatures about Philippine culture throughout history.
They have evolved from the effeminate babaylan and spirit-possessed warrior to
the macho-posturing men of today as exemplified by basketball players, hunk
actors, and business tycoons. Masculinity has many faces because its definition
continues to change. For instance, the traditional role of the man in the family is
being redefined as more women go abroad, leaving men or other women to care
for their children. Thus, it must be noted that the gendered character of men is
not absolutely defined. In fact, it needs a continuous conscious effort to realize.
What is important is that as men define themselves and society defines men,
their self-realization should be creative and not destructive for both themselves
and the people they dwell with. Thus, the society must constantly study how
masculinity is shaped to further the understanding of gender culture and
gendered interactions. The path towards gender equality is one that sees all
persons as gendered beings. It does not help to believe that gender is defined
essentially by nature. Masculinity, as much as femininity, is a human project. It is
a shared pursuit of people who seek to engage with each other creatively and
lovingly for the realization of their embodiment and their desire to find intimacy.
Understanding how this construct was realized and defined will help individuals
appreciate the projected character of gender and on becoming better persons
who love others and can care for others. And so, we must always inquire
ourselves how we define our own gender, what are the possible reasons and
motives for this particular construction, and finally assess if this construction
helps or harms our self-realization and the flourishing of others.

Guide Questions

1. How do you explain the statement "Masculinity is a socially constructed set of

attributes that defines how to be manly"? Why do people need to understand
that masculinity is a social construct?
2. What are the four tenets of masculinity as laid down by Kimmel? Expand each
one.
3. What is lad culture? How is it different from raunch culture and hookup
culture? 4. Why is it important for Filipino men to prove that they are
not effeminate? Would this kind of thinking lead to creative or destructive
behaviors?
5. What are the factors surrounding manhood according to Vandello and Bosson?

Activity

1. Think about how men insult each other by referring to the other as bakla or
tomboy. Why do they do tough things to prove they are not sissies like girls?
Make a poster that reflects your views on masculinity as you have understood it
based on the discussions on this chapter.
2. Look at five advertisements geared toward men and answer the following
questions.
a. What do you see?
b. What is the role of the man in that ad?
c. Define the roles men play in relation to other men, and in relation to other
women. What image are they trying to portray to those around them?
d. Given this observation, what message advertisements trying to send? are these
e. How is this different from the men you know or see around you?
f. Why do you think this disjunct exists?